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An awful lot of the homegrown cinema lately seems to have more heart and soul than most of the big studio productions. These two fan-created films are some of the best that I've seen lately.

First up, it's a sequel to the original Star Trek episode "Who Mourns for Adonais?". "Pilgrim of Eternity" has Michael Forest reprising his role as Apollo from the 1967 episode. The script was written by Jack Treviño (who wrote the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes "Little Green Men" and "Indiscretion"). Christopher Doohan - son of James Doohan - plays Scotty and Marina Sirtis herself is the voice of the Enterprise computer. And not being content with just one Apollo, "Pilgrim of Eternity" also has Jamie Bamber (Battlestar Galactica's Lee Adama) as a redshirt security officer!

And then we have this: Arkham Rising. Set during the events of The Dark Knight Rises, Arkham Rising takes us into Arkham Asylum just after Bane breaks open Blackgate Prison. This very well could have been a deleted scene from The Dark Knight Rises. In fact, I kinda wish it was. Especially in how it attempts to answer the most tantalizing question left from that movie: "Where was the Joker?!"

The thing I like most about Arkham Rising is how it plausibly demonstrates that Batman really could have battled more of his rogues gallery than were depicted on-screen in the Nolan continuity. If you ever wanted to see what a Nolan-esque take on the Riddler, the Mad Hatter and the Calendar Man could have been, Arkham Rising serves it up. And if you go to the Arkham Files on the film's official website you can find stuff about the Penguin, Poison Ivy and Clayface. I bet these guys could have even pulled off a Nolan-ish Mister Freeze, they did such a great job!